One of the greatest threats to our contemporary civilization is the menace of skewed sex ratio. The increasing imbalance between men and women is leading to many crimes such as illegal trafficking of women, sexual assaults, polygamy and dehumanization of society. These acts have been increasing making this world unsafe for women. Female foeticide is one of the most nefarious crimes on this earth; perhaps what is detestable is that the people who commit crime belong to the educated class. To this menace our ancestral and biased view about male child, lack of education, ever increasing population and dowry have been good propellants. Some measures and their enforcement have to happen immediately. The ineffectiveness of the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act is very much evident. Hence there needs to be quick reformation in the attitude of people to look beyond the legacy and transform this world as a better place to live in.

Causes

Number of causes are responsible for the continuous decline in the sex ratio e.g. poverty, illiteracy, culture and preference for male child etc. The discrepancy in the sex ratio in the lowest age group is found in most prosperous areas of IndiaPunjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana and Chandigarh. All these states have sex ratio of less than 900 females to 1000 males below the age of six.

Impact

The declining sex ratio could result in a demographic and social disaster. In such a situation it is the primary duty of the health professionals to provide proper information to the general public about the declining sex ratio and its affects in India. The present study was undertaken in order to determine to what extent the pregnant women are oriented to the actual problem of declining sex ratio and also to ascertain their attitude towards female foeticide.

Recommendations

1) A similar study should be taken up on larger sample to draw generalizations.

2) Comparative study can be done on rural and urban population.

3) Similar studies should be conducted about working and non-working women.